Cute Guide dog puppies born in Stourbridge.

Express & Star

We meet a Guide Dog breeder who has been looking after Guide Dogs and there puppies for over 20 years now, and take a look at Cassie's new litter.

Transcript

00:00 So Tony, we're just here in Stourbridge and we're here with Sam from Guide Dogs

00:05 and Margaret, you're better off!

00:09 And who's the star of the show here Tony? Who've we got in the middle?

00:12 Who's this girl?

00:13 Oh this is Cassie.

00:15 Cassie, cool.

00:16 And she's four years old.

00:17 Yeah.

00:18 And this is her second litter.

00:20 So this is what you do isn't it? You raise dogs for Guide Dogs?

00:25 Basically yes, we started off as puppy walkers 25 years ago.

00:30 Yeah.

00:31 And then our third puppy that we walked, they chose for a brood bitch.

00:37 Yeah.

00:38 And it sort of changed then. We kept the brood bitch.

00:43 Yeah.

00:43 We had puppies from her.

00:45 Yeah.

00:46 We had other puppies in between as well to walk.

00:49 So we've always had three or four dogs for the Guide Dogs.

00:53 Yeah.

00:54 So what, do you remember what initially got you into just walking the puppies?

00:58 Where did you even find out about it?

01:00 Margaret saw a...

01:02 Yeah.

01:02 It's your fault Margaret.

01:04 Oh okay.

01:06 Yes, yeah.

01:07 Yeah.

01:07 Interesting.

01:08 We got an old dog at the time hadn't we?

01:10 Yeah.

01:11 So we thought about doing it. It was going to do some good you know.

01:16 Yeah.

01:16 You know, get your brain around it.

01:19 Yeah.

01:20 And so instead of buying a puppy of our own, we decided we'd go down the Guide Dogs.

01:24 Yeah.

01:24 And did you think, you know, 20 odd years on you'd still be...

01:28 No.

01:28 There's no sign of stopping yet then is there?

01:31 No.

01:31 Well we're typing on another, I say another brood bitch now.

01:36 Yeah.

01:36 So she'll probably have, Kathy will now have another litter.

01:43 Yeah.

01:43 How many litters did they tend to have then in their life? About three litters?

01:48 Four.

01:49 Yeah.

01:49 And she's a lovely colour isn't she?

01:53 And you were saying it's, she's got a...

01:55 Nose down.

01:56 Yeah.

01:57 Yeah, she has hasn't she?

01:59 So Dad was a black lab, hence why we got the mix with the cream and the blacks.

02:05 So these puppies are how old?

02:06 Three weeks old now.

02:08 Three weeks, yeah.

02:09 So this is called a whelping bed, as I've learned today.

02:14 So Mum's been giving them a feed and I guess they're always hungry for more aren't they?

02:19 Like my kids at home.

02:20 [Laughs]

02:22 We're starting to, or we will do in the next couple of days, start to wean them off the dog.

02:28 Yeah.

02:28 Off the mum, onto solid foods.

02:33 Okay, yeah.

02:34 And you were saying this whelping bed, the first stage is get to an extra extension so it doubles in size.

02:39 Yeah.

02:40 And then it has a little avenue, so they've got a little outside section as well.

02:43 Yeah.

02:44 Yeah.

02:44 And so what happens, Sam, if we'll bring you in, go on, peek round, peek round Kathy there.

02:51 So people like Tony and Margaret, they're invaluable aren't they really to guide dogs?

02:56 They are, we couldn't provide the services that we provide without people like our Bruges Stockport volunteers.

03:02 Yeah.

03:03 Bringing litters for us, because if we haven't got the litters, we haven't got any guide dogs out there.

03:08 Yeah.

03:08 So they're invaluable for what we do.

03:10 So there's seven in this litter, is that right?

03:14 So what are the chances of seven making it to guide dogs?

03:17 What's kind of the ratio, like in terms of, because I guess they've got to have certain temperaments and...

03:22 Yeah, Kathy was chosen and the dad, Henderson, because they've got such fantastic temperaments and health.

03:29 So they've got a very strong, you know, chance of becoming a guide.

03:34 If they don't become a full-blown guide dog, we do a service called Brugie Dogs.

03:39 Yeah.

03:40 Where they're a cracking dog, they're just not quite the grade for a guide dog,

03:43 where they would go and help the young who are visually impaired.

03:48 Not to be a guide dog, but they would be out supporting them at school, out in the public,

03:54 and giving them up for when they're old enough to have a guide dog.

03:57 So we sort of self-supply our own other services for the dogs, as well as the guide dog scheme.

04:05 And then we also self-supply our own breeding as well.

04:08 So they could be earmarked to go forward to carry on Kathy's legacy as a future brood as well.

04:16 Yeah.

04:17 So how many people have you got in the Black Country, like Tony and Margaret,

04:22 that are doing what they do, kind of at any one time?

04:24 I've got about 30 dogs on my scheme.

04:29 Yeah.

04:30 I do Black Country, Bronze Grove, Kiddyminster and a touch of Birmingham, like Queen Kings Norton.

04:36 So I've probably got about 30.

04:38 Yeah.

04:39 We have about 230 broods across our scheme, that's an hour from the National Centre.

04:47 Yeah.

04:47 I just cover this hatch.

04:48 Yeah.

04:49 Where is the National Centre?

04:50 It's in Leamington, Bishop's Tattrapock.

04:52 Okay.

04:53 So what is it that you and Tony get out of it then, Margaret?

04:57 I mean, obviously you get time to spend with these beautiful animals,

05:01 but you have to give them up as well, don't you?

05:03 You know, so what?

05:04 You have to give the puppies up after about seven weeks.

05:07 Yeah.

05:08 But by that time, you know, they want more attention than two people can give them.

05:14 So what you're saying is by that time you're shattered.

05:17 [Laughs]

05:17 Yeah, no.

05:18 [Laughs]

05:19 [Laughs]

05:20 They're ready, aren't they, to learn?

05:22 They need to go on, you know, and then they go into Leamington.

05:29 Yeah.

05:29 And then they're issued out, they're fostered out to puppy raisers.

05:38 So initially they go from here to Leamington, to HQ,

05:41 and then they go on to like individually giving out

05:43 one dog to one owner kind of thing to do that next stage.

05:48 I come and collect them on collection day.

05:50 Yeah.

05:51 We van transport them all over.

05:53 The vet will be there waiting to health check them, microchip and vaccinate them.

05:57 Yeah.

05:57 And then we have the whole centre up to about a week.

06:00 Yeah.

06:01 Where they're just resting, settling, we're getting all their belongings ready.

06:06 And then they then go across the country because we're the only breeding centre.

06:10 So we supply the whole country.

06:12 Oh wow.

06:13 We worked out yesterday these guys will probably be going north.

06:17 So these will be going as far as Scotland.

06:19 I didn't realise that.

06:21 So really those patches you were on about, Black Country, Kiddingminster and so on,

06:28 is that kind of like the heart of the breeding hub for the whole country then really?

06:32 Yeah. So to qualify to be able to have a breeding dog,

06:35 you need to live within an hour of the national centre in Leamington.

06:40 Ah, okay. Yeah.

06:40 Because we have such bespoke care, we can't,

06:44 as much as we'd love to cover the whole country,

06:47 we can't because we do our own out of hours.

06:49 When Cassie was whelping I was here at half ten at night I think,

06:54 making sure she'd finished.

06:55 Yeah.

06:55 I only lived ten minutes.

06:57 Yeah.

06:57 And obviously we supply all the equipment.

07:00 Yeah.

07:01 But we supply the whole country with all the puppies for puppy raising and future guide dogs.

07:08 So how is it on that day then Margaret when Sam comes to pick them up and take them away?

07:14 Well, it is a bit on the sad side but you realise that they need to go.

07:20 Yeah.

07:21 They need more than we can give them.

07:24 Yeah.

07:24 And that's it.

07:25 So wow, there's a few dogs on here guys.

07:31 So this is your wall of Hall of Fame.

07:35 Basically, that's our first puppy.

07:37 What was your first one called?

07:39 Puppy pup.

07:39 Sophie.

07:41 Sophie.

07:42 Yeah.

07:43 And then we had, then we puppy walked, we still got her.

07:48 Yeah.

07:48 But we puppy walked Crystal.

07:50 Yeah.

07:51 And that's in her passing out gear.

07:56 Yeah.

07:56 She made it as a guide dog.

07:58 And then the third one we had is Illia and she made a lovely muppet.

08:07 She was chosen as a brood bitch.

08:09 Yeah.

08:10 So we kept her.

08:12 In the meantime, while we were having puppies with her, we had guide dog Tessa, Mac.

08:18 Yeah.

08:20 So do you get like kind of little notes, like keeping you informed,

08:23 you know, as they go through their guide dog life then, you know,

08:26 do you get a kind of saying, right, he's now doing his business, he's re-owned and...

08:31 We normally get a, we write a letter with the puppies.

08:35 Yeah.

08:35 We go to the puppy walkers, you know, it's sort of saying, you know, that they were one of seven.

08:40 Yeah.

08:41 They're, if they've been out in the garden, they're diggers and pruners and...

08:47 Yeah.

08:48 This type of thing.

08:49 And then you do get, in most cases, you get a letter back as they progress.

08:58 Yeah.

08:58 And we've made many friends with...

09:01 Yeah.

09:01 Like Cassie's puppy walker.

09:04 Yeah.

09:05 He had one of her puppies from two years ago.

09:10 Yeah.

09:10 And he was most disappointed when she didn't have him last year.

09:15 Yeah.

09:16 Because you have to have somebody else's puppy.

09:18 Yeah, yeah.

09:19 (laughing)

Category

Transcript

Recommended